Appearance: Muscular, but lean. Average height. He wears a Syther Tech helmet that covers his face, but it’s retractable into a collar around his neck, attached to his armour. His armour looks like Syther tech augmentations, but it’s really a rather light but sturdy exoskeleton. The colours are different too.

Personality: Although he has been through a lot, RAM is still young and (relatively) inexperienced. You could say he passed through the pilot, but still has a long way to go until the final episode. He can be rash, overconfident and naïve, but he will always fight for what’s right.

He is alone, and although he doesn’t admit it, he’s lonely too.

He will use lethal force when he has to, but never on generally decent people.

He never joined Neon and might be hesitant to at first. He does not like following orders from someone he doesn’t know. Trust is important to him.

History: When Syther Tech first took over Ramone’s hometown, it’s soldiers killed everyone he ever knew. He alone escaped due to his speed combined with dumb luck. The first few years he just tried to survive, barely managing to steal enough food to keep himself alive.

However, everything changed when he once again found someone who looked after him. Ben, an older man who was part of Neon had observed him on ‘his’ streets for some time and recognised his talent and will to survive.

He taught him to fight, honed his skills and kept him fed. They became good friends. Together they worked hard to be a general thorn in the side of Syther Tech. Arguably their most successful hit was stealing a prototype exoskeleton that increased reflexes and strength.

RAM started out thirsty for revenge on his family and loved ones, but that slowly subsided as he became closer enemies with a female Syther Tech KTP officer named Jade. She tried to kill him almost every time they met, but he soon realised that she was not what he generally believed to be ‘evil’. He fought for freedom among oppression, she fought for order among chaos. He could relate to that.

However, a more brutal enforcer entered the scene who eventually caused the tragic death of RAM’s mentor and friend. However, by now RAM had learned enough morals and values to keep him going, always fighting the good fight. No longer pretending to be an abiding citizen, he now lives in the shadows. No secret identity. No friends or loved ones. Just a man in a suit of armour, doing the right thing.

Skills/Specialisation: RAM is fast. Really fast. Even without his armour giving him a boost he’ll outrun or outdraw almost all hardened veterans and young recruits alike.

Equipment/Tools/Weaponry:
The exoskeleton he stole slightly boosts all of his basic abilities. It makes him faster, stronger and tougher, but only slightly. It’s agile and light, not so much obstructing as aiding free movement. It’s dark red colour makes it stand out and has become somewhat of a trademark for him and his mentor before him. Mounted on his wrist is a small calibre gun that he can accurately fire within a fraction of a second. However, he mostly engages in hand-to-hand combat, sometimes using two small batons lodged in the back part of his armour.
Making use of an intricate flat-space technology, the entire armour can fit in two bracelets he always wears. When he puts it on, the suit will form around him but it won't do anything yet until he turns it on. As long as it's not turned on, it's dark. However, when activated, the suit will shine a pattern around its frame in bright red neon light.

He wears his belief as a weapon. One time, he will relish in his fanaticism, other time he will interpret sayings of his god in a completely different way. He’s sly and hypocritical like that.

When given a choice, he’d rather step back from the conflict and sleep on it until he figures out a solution that benefits his goals the most.

His long years of servitude as a mercenary instilled in him an immense, but skewed, sense of duty. When he’s told to shoot, he shoots without batting an eye. When he’s told not to, he asks questions before shooting.

He can’t stand hesitation. Even if he thinks of a decision, he thinks decisively.

History:

Former leader of the mercenary squad called Clouds of Fervor. Years ago, they were collaborating with Gragari and served as their troops. Over time, his squad merged with the Gragari, and he was paid a hefty sum to “continue his contribution to Towercrest in another venture”. This basically meant “don’t get in our way this time”.

He accepted the sum and lived a low-key life for quite some time. Then, he stumbled upon “superstitions of the times of old”, which fascinated him.

He opened a locum for the homeless, where he functions now as a preacher. This way, he gives a kindling of hope in these dark times.

He also serves there as a confessor, bringing rest to weary conscience of desperate people, and allowing many agents to exchange information in a surprisingly convenient way.

As he listened to common people, he realized that large corporations have to be thwarted, one way or another. As such, he considers joining the Neon, but will not join the missions where he’d have to fight his former Clouds of Fervor. At least for now. And if they are still alive.

Skills/Specialization: Claudius may be old and fattened, but he never forgot his training. He is still able to point the gun where he needs to, and slit the throat of whoever is he told. His unshakable belief in the afterlife reward makes him that more dangerous, as he himself is not hindered by conscience anymore.

In addition, his duty as a preacher made his speeches so convincing and persuasive that he may easily serve as a negotiator.

Equipment/Tools/Weaponry:

His Kevlar armor provides him with basic protection against bullets. After all, being a confessor is not a job for the unprepared; accusations of treason and being a spy abound, and without proper protection, he wouldn’t survive a week.

His walking cane can be assembled into a shotgun, and he never leaves his locum without a proper supply of armor-piercing shells.

He also carried with himself a dagger, coated with a substance that makes living matter decay and rot when in contact. Courtesy of his friends from Gragari.

Appearance: Paul is about 6'1" and weighs about 150 lbs. He keeps his blonde hair short, in an army-like style so as to not cover his dark brown eyes. Paul is on the fit side, although not overly muscular: he shows vestiges of a six-pack from ages gone by, his arms are thick and strong and his legs are especially muscular, almost maintaining the glory of yore. Finally, Paul has a faded scar on his chest that spans from his right shoulder to just below his heart.

Personality: Paul is a perfectionist. He is very reluctant to let other people help him at his job for fear that they will screw it up. He is also very patient and persistent, being able to spend several hours working on the same project without getting visibly frustrated or tired. The one thing that makes him angry - really angry - is the oppression and greed of the corporations. So much so that Paul has vowed to do anything and everything in his power to sabotage the corporations and protect innocent people from the soullessness of the PMC troops.

History: Born into a family who owned a martial arts school, Paul started the study of martial arts very early in life. Showing some talent and with daily practice, he quickly advanced in his family's art, while also taking a liking to the study of technology. By the time Paul hit his late teens, he was a prodigal computer and electrical engineer as well as a superb martial artist, second to few in his school and among his family.
Everything changed a couple of years later, when after trying to buy their old family dojo, Syther Tech decided to just take it. Paul's family resisted as best they could, but to no avail; most of his family was killed and Paul was left for dead with a potentially fatal wound (described above) inflicted by some PMC grunt. He was saved by a neighboring woman, a childhood friend and now partner. The pain of losing almost everything he'd ever known broke Paul for some time. Then, he turned his grief into anger, bitterness, hatred for all corporations. Nowadays, Paul works underground tech jobs for people trying to work... around corporations.

Skills/Specialisation: Even though he continues to be a great martial artist, the lack of training has made him rusty. His true specialty nowadays lies in computer engineering: hacking, building gadgets, weapons even... If it has technology in it, Paul can hack it, or make it better... probably both.

Equipment/Tools/Weaponry: Paul kept a special staff from his martial arts days. A gift from his father, this staff was made from a very rare, lightweight metal, which made it hard yet very agile and manageable. Best of all, the staff was retractible to the point of fitting in Paul's palm. For all his tech work, he uses a small, black, very thin laptop he himself built.

The game is afoot! We have another player joining shortly. For now though if you guys want to put in an introductory post for your character.

I'm guessing all of them are not part of Neon yet, so if you can incorporate towards the end of your post, your character receiving/finding a strange looking disc, completely black and smooth, and the size of a large coin. (this will be the contact device for all Neon operatives, and has been aptly left for your character by Neon to try and persuade them to join - basically when operatives are needed it glows multicoloured on the edge - much like the picture from my original post).

Appearance: Short and lithe build. Green eyes, fine cheekbones, slight scar above her lip on the right side. Dark skin with a smattering of freckles. Black hair that normally goes below her shoulders kept in a pony tail.

Personality: A being who prides her intelligence above all else, Sabina places little worth on those with low intellect and less still on those who have it, but are too lazy or unwilling to use it, and is, to some extent, an objectivist. She believes that corporations are doing little wrong in terms of maximising profits, instead believing them to be wasting several resources and infringing on personal rights.

History: Sabina’s father was the head of an old minor corporation, though both it and her family's wealth fell away with the wars resolving on her becoming rather self reliant and using what was left to pay for her education in both software programming and philosophy. A few years later she began to work for a small company specialising in adaptive software and hardware solutions, before it too was destroyed by other corporations. Now, she acts as a private tutor for those who want to learn either mathematics or philosophy.

Skills/Specialisation: Sabina specialises in experimental software and viruses, particularly those that are difficult to find, or leave a long lasting mark.

Equipment/Tools/Weaponry: Sabina’s phone, along with containing the usual programs such as a calculator and minesweeper, contains software which is able to hack networks and connect them to her home computer, allowing a range of viruses to implanted. Otherwise, all she has is a simple pistol.

There's no need to worry, it's fine writing in first person - plenty of people do it in RPs. For the <Enter Character> bit, it's not completely necessary either - we know who is posting for which character generally

So the recruitment message is out, and Neon want you! If you want to go ahead and describe your characters reaction etc and have them travel to the illegal bar. I'm happy for you to describe the bar (which in my head is loosely like an old fashioned New York bar, a bit like the show Cheers but just a lot dingier). Compared to the bars in this dystopian future, it feels ancient Note that the bar will be empty other than for the doorman inside and the bartender. First to post gets to do the descriptions!

Halisme if you want to have Sabine arrive as well to meet the new recruits since she is already part of Neon.

Appearance:
Underneath the white mask and coat Izzy has an average build, not being too muscular but not a very small person either. He has short black hair and, strangely, one green eye and one blue eye, though he wears contacts that make them match and switches between the two colors from time to time.

Personality: Izzy Hates the corporations and in his actions against them he rarely concerns himself with collateral damage. His social personality is rather carefree and unassuming, helping to keep his cover when he isn't wearing his mask.

History: Izzy does well to keep most of his history hidden, what's more known is what he's done as "Samsara" He's been behind quite a few attacks on corporate PMCs making use of explosives and guerrilla tactics, he's only gotten into a few open firefights and has had to retreat from most of them. He knows about Neon but usually avoids them due to a "difference" in method

Skills/Specialization: Izzy's fairly good at creating the makeshift bombs he uses in most of his attacks. He can make regular explosives, EMP, even a chemical bomb if he can get his hands on the materials. Other than that he's not to bad with a gun and has a penchant for disguise.

He could also take advantage of his face being unknown to act as a spy.

Equipment/Tools/Weaponry: Izzy has access to a decent amount of "old-world" weapons and gear, most of it is kept in a safehouse but he very rarely makes a trip there to resupply in order to keep it's location from being compromised. His gear might not be as fancy as the tech the PMCs use but it still gets the job done.

Appearance:
6’2” with a heavily muscled build. He isn’t bulky, but is very toned, usually kept hidden under padding over homemade body armor. He has dark, unkempt hair, constant stubble on his chin, and a face that looks like it’s been used as a punching bag a few times too many. He has hundreds of old scars and usually a bandage or two covering fresh wounds.

His usual attire is a black or dark gray t-shirt, with a bulletproof vest underneath, and a pair of black cargo pants, combat boots, and weighted fingerless gloves. Over this, he usually wears a thick black trench coat of patchwork ballistic fiber, with scanner-blocking lead plates sewn between its layers.

Personality:
Driven. John’s modus operandi is dangerously simplistic: make the corporations bleed, by any means necessary. He does not value his own life; most of his missions are of the suicidal sort. Collateral damage is a certainty. Civilian casualties are acceptable. He cannot be reasoned with, dissuaded, or distracted. He has a gruff demeanor and speaks with the gritty tones of someone who ate gravel for breakfast and forgot to swallow.

History:
John Doe (real name: Thomas Stone) has worked with machines all his life. He got his start as a teenager, working in his father’s mechanic’s garage, retrofitting old cars with new technology and restoring classics. He later went to school to perfect his trade and found work at a SytherTech R&D facility, building power armor. This job is where all the trouble began…

Tom was kidnapped from his home by a Gragari hit squad in an act of corporate espionage. They took him to a dark site and spent nearly a month torturing him for information regarding the work he did for SytherTech. But Tom never cracked. Despite the drugs they pumped into system, he gave them nothing. By the time he was rescued by STE, he was barely alive, but had kept his silence through the entire ordeal.

He was given time to recover and expected to return to work as a hero, but the moment he was well enough to stand, Thomas Stone was handed his termination papers. They never told him outright, but he suspected they didn’t believe his claims that he never talked: they saw him as a traitor.

Blacklisted by Syther and with no place to go, he packed up his family and moved home, to work in his father’s garage again. But the black vans and tinted sedans followed him. He was being watched. Tom thought nothing of it. He wasn’t a traitor; they could watch all they wanted, they wouldn’t find him guilty of anything wrong…. right?

One day, Tom awoke in the morgue with two bullets in his skull. His wife and son were dead, and his father’s garage burned to the ground. He had no idea what happened or how he survived, but he knew who’d done it: Tom had designed enough Syther armor to know what their boot prints look like. That was the day Tom “died.” The John Doe who lived on swore vengeance against the corporations that took everything from him.

Skills/Specialization:
According to official records, Tom has been dead nearly a decade and he intends to keep it that way. He burns his fingertips to destroy his prints, promptly disposes of any traceable tech after use, and even his DNA has been corrupted to the point it is no longer a match. (The latter isn’t his own doing, merely a side effect of the chemical torture he endured at the hands of the Gragari Initiative.) He is also a mechanical genius with a MacGuyver-esque ability to engineer his way out of any situation. He has basic knowledge of computer systems, but he can wreak more havoc with a roll of duct tape and a pair of pliers than an army of keyboard jockeys. When all else fails, his extremely high threshold for pain and blatant disregard for his own life makes him a dangerous brawler.

Equipment/Tools/Weaponry:
John’s one-man war against the corps has been going on for nearly a decade. He hails from the city of Bricksburg, an industrial center nearly an hour from Towercrest. His home turf is littered with hidden caches of weapons, gadgets, and secret workshops, but he’s relatively new to Towercrest and hasn’t had time to stockpile the arsenal he has back home. He typically carries a multi-tool, zip ties, a roll of duct tape, and a disposable phone. He sometimes packs a handgun if he’s expecting trouble. His overcoat is lined with lead plates to block security scanners.

So, true story, you probably don't wanna hear about it, but I'm going to tell it anyway. I was sitting on the toilet and thought it'd have a few minutes so I checked to see if Neon had any new posts. Now here is the guys I know from all those decent characters like A.R.W.N, Cephilia and Vitalia, practically playing a 80's action hero with the attitude of your average Dolph Lundgren character. That in and of itself was hilarious, but the post was also so good that I didn't realise how long it was until my wife yelled at me from downstairs "How much longer are you going to be on that thing!"

Honestly though, if you'd write a novel about this guy I'd probably finish it in a couple of days. Awesome character

The first mission is a go! A fire has been started by STE operatives in an effort to covertly irradiate some known enemies of the state. There has been no thought to the collateral damage with an estimated 1.2 million people in total living in this tower (this tower is huge, both incredibly tall and rather wide). The explosions have been placed to inflict the most damage internally but will not causing the building to topple, however there has been a lot of collapses within.

The first priority here is civilian safety. Normally Syther Tech would send out their units to clean up the fire but considering they started it, it is unlikely they will be coming anytime soon. Getting civilians out of the fire as quick as possible is important.

Containment is also critical here. The fire spreads fast and if left unchecked it will become too big for the eventually STE forces to handle. There are likely a number of ways to contain it and I will respond after your posts to let you know whether your character has been successful or not, and how much of an impact their action has.

Secondary objective is looking for evidence of the STE and their technology. Neon has to scrap for everything so anything that can be found will aid the team and help with upgrades. Also if we can find some proof of their actions we can use it as propaganda for our cause.

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This should not be a cake walk in any sense. I'm looking for some real good drama, tension and cliffhangers. Again, first come first serve here - if you are first to post about a new floor/area then you get to describe it and explain to us readers what is happening (bearing in mind the locations I have started the inferno, which gradually get worse the closer to floor 101). For really exciting posts I want you to collaborate with each other. I'm allowing you free reign to create NPCs and have your character save them.

And if you hadn't noticed, one of our new joiners who helped set up the scene has his character trapped on floor 101/100. Thanks to Arvak for putting that post together!